Criminalizing Condoms: How Policing Practices Put Sex Workers and HIV Services at Risk in Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, the United States, and Zimbabwe

In countries around the world, police are actively engaged in stopping and searching sex workers and confiscating or destroying condoms found in their possession. In many cases, possession of condoms has been used by prosecutors as evidence of prostitution. This treatment of condoms as contraband forces sex workers to make a choice between safeguarding their health and staying safe from police harassment or arrest. Criminalizing Condoms documents these practices in six countries and identifies their consequences on sex workers' lives, including their vulnerability to HIV.